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The Algerian Desert (Arabic: الصحراء الجزائرية, romanized: al-Saḥrā' al-Jazā'iriyah) is a desert located in central North Africa within Algeria, constituting part of the Sahara. The desert covers more than 90% of Algeria's total area. [ 1 ]
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Algeria, large, predominantly Muslim country of North Africa. From the Mediterranean coast, along which most of its people live, Algeria extends southward deep into the heart of the Sahara, a forbidding desert where Earth’s hottest surface temperatures have been recorded and which constitutes more than four-fifths of the country’s area. The Sahara and its extreme climate dominate the country. The contemporary Algerian novelist Assia Djebar has highlighted the environs, calling her country “a dream of sand.”
History, language, customs, and an Islamic heritage make Algeria an integral part of the Maghreb and the larger Arab world, but the country also has a sizable Amazigh (Berber) population, with links to that cultural tradition. Once the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, the territory now comprising Algeria was ruled by various Arab-Amazigh dynasties from the 8th through the 16th century, when it became part of the Ottoman Empire. The decline of the Ottomans was followed by a brief period of independence that ended when France launched a war of conquest in 1830.
By 1847 the French had largely suppressed Algerian resistance to the invasion and the following year made Algeria a département of France. French colonists modernized Algeria’s agricultural and commercial economy but lived apart from the Algerian majority, enjoying social and economic privileges extended to few non-Europeans. Ethnic resentment, fueled by revolutionary politics introduced by Algerians who had lived and studied in France, led to a widespread nationalist movement in the mid-20th century. A war of independence ensued (1954–62) that was so fierce that the revolutionary Frantz Fanon noted,
Terror, counter-terror, violence, counter-violence: that is what observers bitterly record when they describe the circle of hate, which is so tenacious and so evident in Algeria.
Negotiations ended the conflict and led to Algerian independence, and most Europeans left the country. Although the influence of the French language and culture in Algeria remained strong, since independence the country consistently has sought to regain its Arab and Islamic heritage. At the same time, the development of oil and natural gas and other mineral deposits in the Algerian interior brought new wealth to the country and prompted a modest rise in the standard of living. In the early 21st century Algeria’s economy was among the largest in Africa.
Britannica Quiz
Algeria is bounded to the east by Tunisia and Libya; to the south by Niger, Mali, and Mauritania; to the west by Morocco and Western Sahara (which has been virtually incorporated by the former); and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It is a vast country—the largest in Africa and the 10th largest in the world—that may be divided into two distin...
The main structural relief features in Algeria were produced by the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates along the Mediterranean margin, giving the country its two geographic regions. The Tell, home to most of the country’s population, contains two geologically young massifs, the Tell Atlas (Atlas Tellien) and the Saharan Atlas (At...
The Algerian Desert makes up more than 90% of the country's total area. [165] Since the 2011 breakup of Sudan, and the creation of South Sudan, Algeria has been the largest country in Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin. Its southern part includes a significant portion of the Sahara.
Algeria map of Köppen climate classification zones Satellite map of Algeria Shaded relief map of Algeria with settlements and roads. Algeria comprises 2,381,740 square kilometres (919,590 sq mi) of land, more than 80% of which is desert, in North Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia. [2] [1] It is the largest country in Africa. [1]
Sep 9, 2024 · Algeria country profile. Published. 9 September. Share. close panel. ... Geographically, the Sahara desert encompasses most of the country, except for its fertile and mountainous north, along the ...
Feb 24, 2021 · The map illustrates Algeria's landscape which consists mostly of high plateaus and the Sahara Desert. The Atlas mountains sit to the north, and the Ahaggar Massif is southeast. The high plateaus stretch for more than 372 miles (600 km) and consist of undulating, steppe-like plains averaging 3,608 - 4,265 ft (1,100 - 1,300 m) and dropping to 1,312 ft (400 m) as you move east.
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Aug 7, 2024 · 2. Due to the country’s size, the Algerian population is thinly spread, with the majority of inhabitants (91%) residing along the Mediterranean coastline. This region occupies a mere 12% of the nation’s overall land area. 3. The Sahara desert makes up more than four-fifths of the country’s area.
